New Fish! What Is It?

[mjcookies]

hey my buddy just got a few of these fish, anyone here know what these are? thanks!

 

[cane76]

ooh i seen those at wildwood look at those knashers.cant recall the name tho

 

[SamUK]

piranhas eat your heart out lol. those are some big teeth!

are they not wolf fish or something like that? cant remember........

 

[mjcookies]

noo its not a wolf fish..i saw some pics on a wolf fish online and it doesnt look like that.. still a mystery fish.

 

[cane76]

i think they were labelled up as vampire tetra look in the fish index characins under sabretoothed tetra

 

[nmonks]

They're juvenile Hydrolycus armatus, judging by the black strioe behind the gill covers. Nice fish, but since they get to 60+ cm (2 feet) in length, they will need quite a large aquarium!

Cheers,

Neale

EDIT: The sabretooth tetra, Hydrolycus scoberoides, is a different fish. It has a spot behind the gill covers rather than a stripe. It is also twice as big (up to 117 cm, according to Fishbase).

 

[cane76]

great pic

 

[CFC]

Unfortunately they wont ever need that huge tank, payara are known to be practically impossible to keep alive in captivity once they reach around 12" in length. For some unknown reason once they reach that size they just give up on living and waste away over a matter of weeks, this happened to the two i kept and is well documented within the predatory fish keeping comunity.

In the wild large adult fish live in river rapids at depths of several meters so prehaps this could be why they die in aquariums, but recreating a section of rapids just isnt practical in home aquaria so no one has ever found out.

 

[CAC]

Awesome looking fish, just a shame that they will probably not get the right tanksize...

How many has he/she got?

Mikey

 

[nmonks]

CFC --

Is that the "official" payara Hydrolycus scomberoides, or the species this guy has, Hydrolycus armatus? Or both? Does the hobby distinguish between them?

Cheers,

Neale

Unfortunately they wont ever need that huge tank, payara are known to be practically impossible to keep alive in captivity once they reach around 12" in length. For some unknown reason once they reach that size they just give up on living and waste away over a matter of weeks, this happened to the two i kept and is well documented within the predatory fish keeping comunity.

 

[CFC]

The hobby doesnt really distiguish between the species (there are two more which also crop up from time to time) and lump them all under their collective native name of Payara.

The two i had were scomberoids http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34253 (note the spot behind the gill cover) but armatus seem to be the more commonly available.

 

[cane76]

they should not sell this fish at all then a

 

[CFC]

I agree, as tempting as they are i wont buy them again unless i have the means to try recreating something more like their natural habitat.

 

[mjcookies]

my buddy has got 3 of these guys in a 40gal tank right now with very little water movement. ill let him know they get big and would require deeper waters with more water movement. they are vicious little guys and theire teeth are huge!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

my buddy has got 3 of these guys in a 40gal tank right now with very little water movement. ill let him know they get big and would require deeper waters with more water movement. they are vicious little guys and theire teeth are huge!

And this is one of the no.1 reasons why you don't buy fish when you don't know what they are .
I would go with CFC's and nmonks advice/info on this, its better to rehome them unless you are willing to fork out big money to keep these fish alive and happy in the long run.